East Asia

The IAAH East Asian countries are China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan. China and Mongolia make up most of the land of East Asia. The Korean Peninsula extends off mainland China. Japan is an archipelago of volcanic islands, and Taiwan is an island off the east coast of China. There are 1.6billion people living in East Asia.

As Chinese civilization existed about 1,500 years before other East Asian civilizations emerged into history, Imperial China had much influence culturally, economically and politically on its neighbouring countries. Each country now speaks its own language, and carries its own unique culture. During the Cold War, The Korean peninsula was divided into two rival states, North and South Korea. In 1949, after losing control of mainland China in the Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China government withdrew to Taiwan. Taiwan is not a UN member now.

Countries in the East Asia region are characterised as a mix of ‘Injury excess’ and ‘NCD burden predominant’ by the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. Three of the 4 top causes of mortality for adolescents in this region relate to injury – transport injuries (1), unintended injuries (2) and self-harm/interpersonal violence (4). The top disease producing burden in East Asia is mental health and substance use issues (17.6%), followed by NCDs (16.3%).

‘Strategic directions for improving adolescent health in South-East Asia Region (The 4S Framework)’ was developed by WHO in 2011:

• Strategic information: Improving the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data that are required for advocacy, policies and programmes
• Supportive policies: Synthesizing, disseminating and contributing to the evidence base for policies (and programmes) that have an impact on the health and development of adolescents
• Strengthening services: Increasing young people’s access to, and use of appropriate health services and commodities that respond to a number of priority health conditions
• Strengthening collaboration with other sectors: Mobilizing and supporting other sectors to maximize their contributions to adolescent health and development, both what they can do to strengthen the health sector response and what the health sector can do to support their actions

There are a number of professional organisations with a keen interest in adolescent health in East Asia – regional and national paediatric societies, regional and national child and adolescent psychiatry organisations and 3 dedicated adolescent health organisations – The Child and Adolescent Health Section of the China Preventive Medicine Association, the Japan Society of Adolescentology, and the Taiwan Society for Adolescent Medicine and Health.